MANHATTAN, Kan. – Kansas State had won 40 of 49 games under coach Deb Patterson when the crowd at Bramlage Coliseum exceeded 7,500.
On Saturday, even a sellout of 12,528 couldn't help the Wildcats against No. 1 Baylor.
Brittney Griner scored 29 points in another dominating performance, allowing the Bears to extend their perfect season with a 70-41 victory.
The 6-foot-8 Griner has been a menace all season against smaller teams, coupling her height advantage with a deft touch around the basket, and that played out again versus the Wildcats.
"It frustrates you a lot," Kansas State forward Jalana Childs said. "You try to think in your head, 'What can I do to stop this from happening?'"
The Wildcats struggled with the question all night.
Brittany Chambers had 10 points to lead Kansas State (15-7, 6-3 Big 12), though she was just 3 of 11 from the field. Mariah White also had 10 points.
The Wildcats' plan seemed to be the exact opposite of every other team to face Baylor (23-0, 10-0) this season: force Griner to beat them by denying everyone else a shot.
It was working early on, too.
Baylor's offense looked disjointed and at times downright inept. By the time Chambers hit a 3-pointer with 8:25 left in the first half, the plucky Wildcats had a 19-13 lead.
The rest of the Lady Bears finally got on track after Griner scored with 8:01 remaining, the start of what turned out to be a 20-5 run into halftime.
"Partway through that half, for whatever reason, I think we started to narrow our focus and our dimension. We began to look for one option," Patterson said. "Our personality changed, and our focus and our execution. Why, I have no idea."
Destiny Williams converted a pair of three-point plays 90 seconds apart, and then added another bucket a couple minutes later. Odyssey Sims added a basket as the half wound down, silencing a crowd that had taken advantage of dollar tickets to see the game.
Griner had 17 points on 8-of-10 shooting in the first half.
She added two more points less than a minute into the second half, and Baylor began pouring on the offense with the kind of play that's become familiar to folks in the Big 12.
The Wildcats, on the other hand, could hardly make a shot. Their field goal percentage fell from 33.3 percent in the first half to just 19.2 percent in the second half.
"They sped us up, definitely," Chambers said. "They played us tighter and face-guarded some. ... We didn't hold our composure at all. We needed to slow ourselves down, and we didn't."
The Lady Bears scored the first six points out of halftime, and after White and Branshea Brown managed baskets for Kansas State, Baylor scored 10 more. Griner had four during the 5-minute spurt, while Sims hit a 3-pointer and Williams a jumper for a 53-28 lead.
Patterson hardly had enough timeouts to slow the momentum.
"Quite honestly, I think we had players just check out mentally, and then we're toast," Patterson said. "It just gets ugly."
Baylor put it on cruise control the final 10 minutes, well on its way to another blowout win over Kansas State. The Wildcats have dropped 13 straight to Baylor, including a 76-41 defeat last month in Waco. Their last win in the series came on Jan. 27, 2004.
Kansas State has also lost all five of its games against No. 1 teams in Manhattan, though Baylor's trip was the first since top-ranked Wayland Baptist visited on Jan. 11, 1977.
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